I am an entrepreneur and communications expert from Salt Lake City, founder of Snapp Conner PR, and author of Beyond PR: Communicate Like A Champ The Digital Age, available at http://amzn.to/1AO0PxX. I am also a frequent author and speaker on Business Communication. The opinions I express (especially when tongue in cheek) are entirely my own. My newsletter is the Snappington Post, available at http://bit.ly/1iv67Wk

Do you know how big the television selling industry is? Bob Circosta could tell you. It currently accounts for more than $12 billion per year in the U.S. alone. He should know. Circosta is the original home shopping host and is widely acclaimed as one of the individuals who helped to create the multi-billion dollar industry that is now pervasive on channels all over the world. On the day we conducted this interview, Circosta was preparing for his upcoming New Year’s Day appearance on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). He anticipates selling 45,000 water filters at a price of $39 apiece, for a total of $1.7 million in sales. In a day. (As he speaks, I mentally rethink my career in consulting.)

The phenomenon began innocuously enough 36 years ago in 1977, when an advertiser short on money asked to trade units of their product in lieu of cash for their bill. The channel owner, Bud Paxson, asked its host, the young Circosta, to sell the avocado-green can openers live on the air. Circosta obliged, inviting listeners to call him up and reserve their purchase for pickup at the station, sight unseen (this was radio, remember). The lines lit up. By the end of the hour, 112 of the electric can openers had been purchased. The home shopping industry was born. Circosta remembers, “The early days were great. If someone ordered something from me on the radio and lived near my route home, I would often deliver the merchandise to their house.” It was the power of relationship marketing, long before the marketing concept was termed.

Since that fateful day, Circosta has become the canonical “Billion Dollar Man” of home shopping, having amassed a body of work that comprises 25,000 hours of live television, 75,000 unique presentations, and yes, $1 billion in personal sales. In 2012, HSN rewarded Circosta its first lifetime achievement honor: the HSN Legend Award.

But as an entrepreneur, here’s the thing to remember: As he will freely tell you, underneath the programs, the strategies, the co-presentations with celebrities ranging from Suzanne Somers to Connie Stevens, Carol Alt, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Patti LaBelle—Bob Circosta hates to sell. He is adamant that the secret to success in television sales isn’t actually selling—it’s the art of presenting and communicating a message to prospective customers that allows the magic to happen and the resulting sales to occur on their own.

Then and now: Bob Circosta, circa 1977 as a radio host

At this point, a goodly share of the thousands of entrepreneurs who may be reading this article (and several thousand more with ideas and inventions still pending) are undoubtably wondering: Could mass marketing through a television show work for me? As you might imagine, Circosta hears versions of this question constantly. Myraids of people approach him with their ideas and pitches.

While Circosta is involved with a multitude of projects, he joined with CEO Space CEO Berny Dohrmann to create a fairly economical Mass Marketing Bootcamp (generally priced at approximately $995) that runs alongside two or occasionally three of the CEO Space events every year (which is where he and I recently met). The two-and-a-half day Bootcamp allows entrepreneurs to learn about the process of television selling in depth, and allows Circosta to assess the viability of their prospective projects directly.

In short, however, Circosta believes most entrepreneurial businesses that address a consumer market—whether they sell products or services—stand a better chance at high success in television sales than founders would likely believe.

For those who are wondering where their ideas might fit within a television marketing landscape, Circosta offers a set of eight questions. If you answer “yes” to 3-4 of these, you likely have the potential, he believes, for shopping channel success. Remember, he says, even a consulting service is, in actuality, a product. However, is the service demonstrable? And could you demonstrate the results it performs on TV? Television is a visual medium that you will need to use artfully to bring your product or service to life. So here are the questions:

Does your product result in instant gratification? The answer to this question is gauged within the context of time. In live television, you have very little time to tell a story before you need a response to come in. If it takes six months before you see the result of the product or service, the “instant gratification” becomes a harder proposition to sell.

Does the product appeal to an impulse? Is there a sense of urgency to the desire the product creates for the buyer to have it right now?

Does it solve a problem? Entrepreneurs can really relate to this particular question, he notes. What is the problem it solves?

Does the product create an emotional need? Can you help the viewer to make an emotional connection to the need it fulfills? (Of course my question to Bob was how he possibly managed to instill an emotional connection in listeners to a green can opener. I’m wondering still…)

Is it easy to use and understand? This question speaks to the importance of developing your marketing message. Too many people have a general message about their product that spills “all over the map,” he notes. In live sessions he helps them to fine tune the message to make the entrepreneur effective and efficient at communicating what they have to everyone else. “Entrepreneurs think they have all the time in the world,” Bob says. “I’m very conscious, always, of how many minutes it takes me to get to the win.”

Does it make one’s life easier? If you offer the product and it’s way outside the viewer’s comfort zone, it’s a factor you will have to consider, he says. An ideal offering has a proposition that makes lives more convenient, not more complex.

Does it appeal to the masses? Mass appeal is a virtue in television selling as the selling programs are inherently designed, in most cases, to appeal to the consumer market at large.

Does it appeal to a niche? An ideal home sale product has a message that appeals to the masses. If your product does not, it’s a “niche” product. “There’s nothing wrong with a niche product—and you may even be able to sell it successfully on television–as long as you identify your niche accurately and are able to clearly communicate what it is,” he concludes.

Initially, Circosta says, television selling was poised to succeed for gadgets and gizmos, but the horizon for television selling has become much deeper and wider as the channels have matured. The concept has become so pervasive at this point that it has become much more possible for nearly any type of service or product to sell.

So I come back to the avocado green can opener and the challenge of creating an emotional need…exactly how did he do that? “I could help to prepare you for this challenge in training,” he says, “But in short, remember you are not just presenting a can opener. You are presenting what the can opener is able to do. What are its great benefits? Is it faster to prepare a meal? A more accurate way of preparing that eliminates the risk of drops, spills or mess? That’s what you need to communicate. Not just what it is, but what it allows others to do.” In fact, Bob’s message to all entrepreneurs, regardless of the channels they market through, is to put less focus on what the product is and much more focus on what it will do for others. Wise words.

In another example, Circosta talks about clothes hangers. Yes, hangers. His good friend and colleague Joy Mangano is the inventor of the “Huggable Hanger.” Joy is a tremendous example of the ability to communicate her message in a way that helps others, which has allowed her to sell more 300 million units so far, he reports. “They are very demonstrable,” he says. “They create a need. The hanger allows you to become organized and they are color coordinated. My own closet never looked so good.”

As an agent for assisting with the product pitch to the appropriate network, Circosta receives a continuous stream of unsolicited product examples to his office in Florida. He doesn’t mind, he says, as he and his team help to vet and advise on the submissions he gets. However, too many submissions arrive for his team to provide responses to all, and attendance at a Bootcamp session continues to be the most efficient and effective means of getting his full perspective and thinking. For products that fit, Circosta and his team can serve as an agent of placement to not just one of the popular networks, but to all.

I asked Circosta how much inventory a provider would need to supply for a pitch to a television network to fly. The amount varies by product, he stated, but is perhaps a less onerous and expensive proposition than you might think.

Finally, Circosta notes that he’s working on a book of his marketing stories and secrets designed to help entrepreneurs improve their ability to present and market their products through both TV and traditional channels that will be available from his site www.BobCircosta.com in the mid to latter part of the year. His working title is apropos: “Life’s a Pitch.” Yes, it is. But it’s hard to argue with $1 billion in success.

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Even if you can answer yes to all 8 questions it’s still very difficult to get on TV. Nice read though. I met Bob at CEO Space and passed off a couple of LoopRopes. I wonder if he’s using them? CEO Space is a great networking platform for anyone but especially new entrepreneurs.

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